Agency and the Senses in the Context of Museality from the Perspective of Aesthetics of Religion

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to apply the perspective of aesthetics of religion to the context of museality, focusing on notions of the agent and the senses. After sketching different roles of agency in the field of museality and suggesting some theoretically interesting links to research on European history of religions, the notion of agency will be extended to aesthetic, sensual, bodily, cognitive, and other aspects of experience, perception, sense-making, and interpretation of objects and media in the context of museality. Furthermore, questions of how specific cultural and religious sense hierarchies affect the interaction of agents with museality are raised. Finally, the insights gained are applied to a discussion of the analytical value of the concept of 'museality.'